Ridgefield residents riled over Royle Road construction mistakes, delays

RIDGEFIELD — Delays and mistakes on the South Royle Road improvement project in Ridgefield led Steve Stuart, the Ridgefield city manager, to issue a public apology for the star-crossed project’s woes.

“It’s not okay,” he wrote. “I/we are sorry. A social media post can’t be long enough to detail all the reasons for delay and mistakes which have been made. As a team — including both the city and private contractors — they’re being corrected and learned from, and we will do better.”

Stuart shared fault between the city and contractors and did not elaborate on the causes of the delays, but a recently updated frequently asked questions page said that the largest delays stemmed from coordinating with 14 different utility providers to move their overhead lines into a joint utility trench. The page says that many of the utilities wanted to use their own contractors for the work, and some were difficult to get responses from.

A representative for the general contractor on the project, Northwest Construction, told The Columbian that they are not part of the mistakes or delays.

The project is working to make the road safer for vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. The work is broken up into three phases; the first phase, which includes the installation of a roundabout, bike lanes and sidewalks, is scheduled to be completed by April 22.